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The Oracle Shrine was a fractured monument of whitestone and glowing roots, buried in the endless expanse of the Oracle Plains. Ancient scripts crawled over its walls like living vines — fate itself inked in divine language.
But as Kael Draven stepped past its threshold, those glowing glyphs shuddered, sparked… and bled black.
Inside the sanctuary, three Chrono-Seers sat cross-legged, blindfolded, their minds half-rooted in the streams of time. As Kael approached, their faces twisted in pain.
> "The Unscribed has entered..." one whispered, clutching her temple.
"His soul... is an infection. He erases the timelines we walk."
Kael didn't flinch.
Beside him, Sira stood silent — her Sovereign Link pulsing faintly, syncing thoughts with Kael. Her presence, too, bent the light. Neither of them were supposed to be here.
And fate knew it.
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📜 Oracle Response: System Error
> Query: Read Subject's Fate.
Status: ERROR_00000 – Target has no future. Target is outside written cause.
Emergency Protocol: Trigger Echo-Knight Purge.
A distant bell rang — low, metallic, cursed.
The seers gasped in unison. "The Time Wardens come. We cannot protect you."
Kael's voice was ice.
"Then don't."
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⛓️ From Beyond Time – Arrival of the Echo-Knight
The shrine's inner walls cracked as a fissure opened mid-air — a time-slip, forced open through forbidden layers of collapsed timelines.
A figure of obsidian armor stepped out — his armor etched with mirror runes, helmet shaped like a tear in reality itself. Behind his visor burned not eyes, but a fractured timeline.
> "Kael Draven," the Echo-Knight intoned, his voice layered in echoes.
"You are a threat to all recorded futures. You must be erased before you become fixed."
Kael studied him calmly, the Sovereign Core overlaying data in real-time.
> [Timeline Origin: Collapse Point Zeta-X | Mission: Prevent Fate Corruption]
[Strength Class: Heroic Tier X | Rewrite Immunity: Partial]
[Weakness: Memory Loops Unstable]
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⚔️ Combat Begins – Logic vs Prophecy
The Echo-Knight struck first — reality bent where his blade moved. Time itself folded. Every swing felt like a future being rewritten.
But Kael… smiled.
"You're predictable."
With a flick of his wrist, Kael summoned Echo Version 1.7, a shadow-self from a death Kael never experienced. The copy took the blow — and in doing so, broke the fixed loop.
> Sovereign Core: Echo Loop Exploit Successful.
Auto-Initiate: Parallel Sync Reversal.
Effect: Your enemy forgets what already happened.
The Echo-Knight's next strike missed completely — as if he'd forgotten Kael had moved.
"Your future doesn't work here," Kael said coldly, his own blade coated in reversed timeline static. "This is my present now."
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🩸 Turning Point – Oracle Blood Spilled
In the chaos, a stray slash from the Echo-Knight struck a Chrono-Seer — and time inside the shrine fractured.
The dead seer's blood flowed in patterns, forming a new glyph Kael had never seen. It wasn't fate.
It was a hidden override command.
Sira's eyes widened. "Kael... I think the Oracles were scripted to hide something."
Kael reached down and touched the glyph. A whisper entered his mind — not from the Sovereign Core, not from any Echo.
But from a creator.
> "Sovereign Anomaly Detected. Final Layer Key Primed."
"To break the fate-script, seek the Mouth of Ash."
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🧠 Aftermath: New Path Unlocked
The Echo-Knight faltered, system destabilizing. His connection to the time-slip cut off.
Sira launched a compressed light-thread into his core — a Sovereign Link fusion attack. The Knight shattered in silence.
Kael exhaled.
> [Mission Complete: Oracle Confrontation]
[New Objective: Seek the Mouth of Ash – Location Unknown]
[Warning: Divine Entities Notified]
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🤯 Sira's Side Reveal (Partial)
Later, as they walked beyond the broken shrine, Sira spoke.
"Kael... in my dreams, I saw that place — the Mouth of Ash. But I wasn't me."
He stopped walking. Turned.
"I was... you," she said softly.
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